Artaxerxes

Biblical Record

Artaxerxes was a king of Persia. The name represents the Persian royal name Artaxerxes; in Korean Bibles it appears as Adaksaseuda. In the Bible he appears in Ezra and Nehemiah.

• Halting of the wall construction: According to Ezra 4:7-23, Rehum the chancellor, Shimshai the scribe, and others sent the king a letter accusing those who were rebuilding the city and walls of Jerusalem. After having the old records searched, the king ordered the work to cease.
• Commissioning of Ezra: In Ezra 7, in the seventh year of his reign, the king sends the scribe Ezra to Jerusalem. The decree (a written royal command) issued on that occasion provides silver, gold, and goods for the temple sacrifices, exempts the temple workers from taxes, and grants Ezra authority to appoint judges and to teach the Law (Ezra 7:11-26).
• Commissioning of Nehemiah: In the twentieth year of his reign, the king notices the troubled face of his cupbearer Nehemiah and asks him the reason. After Nehemiah offers a silent prayer, a brief, unspoken petition, and makes his request, the king permits the rebuilding of the walls and provides timber as well as letters to the governors (Nehemiah 2:1-8). Nehemiah served as governor of Judah until the king's thirty-second year and then returned to the king (Nehemiah 5:14; 13:6).

Significance Within the Bible

The text portrays Artaxerxes as a foreign king used on behalf of God's people. Ezra blesses God, "which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the LORD" (Ezra 7:27), and Nehemiah acknowledges that the king granted his request "according to the good hand of my God upon me" (Nehemiah 2:8). The same king at one time stopped the work and later permitted it. This record illustrates how the Judean community after the return from exile had to depend on imperial policy. Ezra 6:14 names him alongside Cyrus and Darius in connection with the rebuilding of the temple. Artaxerxes is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretations and Debates

• Which king?: History records several Persian kings of this name. The king in Nehemiah is generally identified as Artaxerxes I. Views differ regarding the king in Ezra. Some identify him as Artaxerxes I, while others identify him as Artaxerxes II and hold that Ezra came after Nehemiah. Conservative commentaries generally identify him as Artaxerxes I.
• The sequence of Ezra 4: The episode of the accusation is placed between the accounts of the temple's rebuilding under Cyrus and Darius. Many commentaries read this passage as a collection of later events inserted to show that opposition continued.
• Daniel's seventy weeks: Some interpreters take "the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" in Daniel 9:25 as the decree of Artaxerxes and calculate the chronology of the prophecy from that starting point. The starting point is placed either at Ezra 7 or at Nehemiah 2. The Seventh-day Adventist Church dates the decree of Ezra 7 to 457 BC and uses it as the starting point for calculating the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14. Scholars of other denominations either place the starting point differently or reject such chronological calculations altogether.
• Relationship to Ahasuerus: The Septuagint version of Esther and Josephus identify the king in Esther as Artaxerxes. Today Ahasuerus is generally identified as Xerxes I, and Artaxerxes I as his son. Stories that connect Esther directly with Artaxerxes are conjecture without basis in the text. Likewise, the text does not name the queen mentioned in Nehemiah 2:6.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, Artaxerxes appears mainly in sermons on Nehemiah. The scene in which Nehemiah prays briefly before speaking to the king (Nehemiah 2:4) is often presented as a model of prayer in everyday life. The foreign king's permission to rebuild is frequently explained in light of Proverbs 21:1, which teaches that the king's heart is in the hand of the LORD.